Norman Rockwell Image Promotes French Museum Exhibit
On March 31, 2004, in Paris, France, the Musee du Luxembourg will open an exhibition of self-portraits by some of the most renowned names in 20th century art. The show includes such world-famous artists as Picasso, Matisse, and Degas, but the image used to promote the exhibit across Paris is none other than the self-portrait by the icon of all things American, Norman Rockwell. Is this a cultural détente? At the very least, Norman Rockwell, the quintessential American artist, will add a touch of old-fashioned American humor and wit to the Paris scene this spring. After all, this is the country that for decades has idolized the films of American comedian Jerry Lewis. So perhaps it is fitting that now it is Norman Rockwell's turn to take the French cultural world by storm.
"Imagine! Norman Rockwell is the focal point of a European exhibition of modern masters," says Norman Rockwell Museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt. "He has been given an extraordinary tribute by the French ministers of culture. They have selected Triple Self-Portrait as the most engaging artist's self-portrait of the 20th century. I wish Norman were alive to see this. He would really get a chuckle out of it!"
The Norman Rockwell Museum is lending Rockwell's famous self-portrait to the exhibit of more than 150 artists of the 20th century. The exhibition is called Moi! Autoportraits du XXeme siecle (Me! Self-portraits of the 20th Century ). It will open on March 31 and run through July 25, 2004, at the French Senate's Musee du Luxembourg. The exhibition travels to the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, in September.
After seeing Rockwell's Triple Self-Portrait in an exhibition catalogue, the cultural attaché to the French Senate asked the Norman Rockwell Museum if it would loan the painting to the exhibition. Once the loan was secured, curator Pascal Bonafoux and the exhibit's organizer, Sylvestre Verger of Sylvestre Verger Art Organization, selected Norman Rockwell's work to be the signature image for the exhibition for the show. Rockwell's image appears on the cover of the exhibition's catalogue and invitation, on posters, metro cards, billboards, and bus posters throughout the city, and will be on the cover of a special edition of the magazine Paris Match magazine.
The exhibit examines artists' self-portraits of the 20th century, a century marked by individualism and the view that the portrait is an act of self-examination, affirmation and revelation. "The self-portrait is the most intense unmasking of the artist's identity", says curator Pascal Bonafoux, who adds that the exhibition reveals 150 different responses to the same question: "Who am I"?
Self-portraits of artists Picasso, Matisse, Vuillard, Warhol, Basquiat, Chagall, Chuck Close, Degas, Dubuffet, Ernst, Giacometti, Frida Kahlo, Ferdinard Leger, Miro, and Mondrian, among others, will be featured in the exhibition. Norman Rockwell's self-portrait, which is actually three self-portraits, includes portraits of Norman Rockwell's own artistic heroes, Durer, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Van Gogh.
The Norman Rockwell Museum is dedicated to art appreciation and education through new scholarship that illuminates Rockwell's unique contributions to art, society, and popular culture. As a center devoted to the art of illustration, the Museum also exhibits the works of contemporary and past masters in an ongoing series of compelling artist showcases. Previous exhibitions at the Museum have presented the work of Charles Schulz, Winslow Homer, Howard Pyle, J.C. Leyendecker, Maxfield Parrish, Rockwell Kent, Al Hirschfeld, Robert Weaver, and others. Set on a picturesque 36-acre estate in the hometown of America's favorite artist, the Norman Rockwell Museum is one of the crown jewels
Editor's note: RLM readers may also enjoy these earlier articles:
Norman Rockwell and the Art of Medicine (7/6/03)
Freedom: Norman Rockwell's Vermont Years (5/22/03)
Toast of the Town: Norman Rockwell and the Artists of New Rochelle (8/28/02)
Norman Rockwell Lithographs from the Powers Collection, Cheney, Washington (2/20/02)
Norman Rockwell: Drawing The American Dream (12/12/01)
Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People (3/22/01)
The Spirit of Christmas: Rockwell Paintings from the Hallmark Collection (11/12/00)
322 Norman Rockwell Covers (9/18/00)
Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People (2/22/00)
Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People (rev.11/22/99)
Cover Story -- Norman Rockwell's America (7/6/99)
Hooray for Rockwell's Hollywood (6/12/99)
Norman Rockwell: Drawing the American Dream (7/28/98)
Norman Rockwell: Drawing the American Dream (6/28/98)
Norman Rockwell Comes to Albany (8/97)
Family Ties: Rockwell's Art for Family, Friends and Fun (1997)
For your further enjoyment and pleasure, shown below is an artwork by the artist noted above that may not have been included in the referenced exhibit. The imag was sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Another source readers may find helpful is Google Images.
(above: Norman Rockwell, Ours to Fight For - Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear,
Poster illustrated by four paintings for The Saturday Evening Post magazine's "Four Freedoms" series,102 x 73 cm, published by the United States Government Printing Office,1943. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Editor's note: The Norman Rockwell Museum provided source material to Resource Library Magazine for this article. If you have questions or comments regarding the source material, please contact The Norman Rockwell Museum directly through either this phone number or web address:
413-298-4100
Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional source by visiting the sub-index page for the Norman Rockwell Museum in Resource Library Magazine.
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